Promoter of Hoi An tourism

Among hundreds of tourism forms being expanded in the Hoi An ancient town in the central province of Quang Nam, Hoian Eco-tour, a tour combining ecological tourism with environmental protection is known as a new typical form by tourists and organizations.

Although Hoian Eco-tour only has two wooden tourism ships which can carry 20 tourists, and 10 employees, young director Tran Van Khoa is very happy to help protect Hoi An environment together with tourists.

Born in Phuoc Hai fishing village, Khoa loves the Bay Mau coconut forest at which soldiers were sheltered, contributing to the victories in the struggle against the French and American imperialists. The love has developed himself an ambition to make the world know his fatherland.

Although his family lives on fishing, he follows tourism education. Since he attended the secondary school, he has practiced to be a tourist guide for foreigners to practice foreign languages. Then he chose the tourism department of the Da Nang University of Foreign Languages to study.

One day, people in the fishing village were surprised at his taking some foreigners to travel the village. He took them on his family’s coracle around the village at the sunset, fishing with them and looking at the flock of storks in the coconut forest.

To Khoa’s surprise foreigners liked all those. As he attended university, he took a number of photos on the fishing village and the Bay Mau coconut forest to introduce to foreigner in travel tours.

After he graduated from the university, he worked in many hotels in Hoi An town to get working experience. One day he showed his intention to set up a tourism tour which combines ecological tourism with environmental protection with his parents. In June 2005, his Hoian Eco-tour tourism company officially made debut.

On wooden boats, tourists have a chance to listen to the region’s folk songs, and join farmers and fishermen to do farming and fishing work. Tourists can also listen to stories about Vietnamese soldiers’ lives and struggles for national independence.

Khoa and his parents are good cooks at traditional dishes.

Therefore, after three years of operation, Hoian Eco-tour has attracted over 2,000 tourists from every part of the world.

However, the greatest significance that Khoa and his company do is to participate in protecting the environment. Everyday when the tours conclude, Khoa diligently collects wastes in the Bay Mau coconut forest. He also comes to each household in his village to encourage them not to dump disorderly. With great efforts and love for tourism, Khoa has changed the Bay Mau coconut forest with wastes into an ecological tourism region. Recently, Khoa has persuaded people to protect wild birds in the forest.

Khoa has also persuaded tourists to participate in clear rubbish in the coconut forest. Foreign tourists are willing to do it.

In each September, he encouraged big hotels in Hoi An to participate in a “green day” to protect the environment.

Khoa wants any tourists to understand that he is protecting Hoi An’s environment.

The success of Khoa and his Hoian Eco-tour has been introduced widely in the world. His smile at the Business Traveller magazine is impressing, with a praise for his great efforts to preserve traditional values and protect the environment.

Source VOV